History Of Tor Band From Rahachou, Who Wrote Famous Protest Hits

The song "We Are Not Little People!" can be heard on every Sunday March, and music videos of musicians attract hundreds of thousands of views.

The group Tor Band from the Belarusian province became one of the symbols of protest last summer. The song "We Are Not Little People!" can be heard on every Sunday March, and music videos of musicians attract hundreds of thousands of views. The band members themselves - a photographer and the sound engineer from the local House of Culture - continue to work in Rahachou, recording new songs and listening to what people are saying. Onliner.by journalist Aliaksandr Charnukha has visited the musicians' hometown and recorded their history.

Rahachou is asleep. This is its usual state - the town stays in it even under pressure of powerful cataclysms. Growing athletes train at the cute local stadium, and after lessons the guys go to sports clubs. Those who are older familiarly complain about low wages and lack of prospects and entertainment. In general, feel free to go to any other town with a comparable population - you will hear approximately the same things.

Rahachou aroused from its indifference last year. In summer, there was a real rock concert at the central square. In an adult way: with live sound, with musicians who had real wires sticking out of their guitars, with a fire show and a so-called rapper imposed by the city administration. The Tor Band musicians and the organizers of that show talk about the latter as follows: "15 minutes of disgrace - and everything is fine". They also claim that on that day the whole town gathered at the central square, and then local people were discussing what they had seen and heard for another month.

Now it is impossible to imagine the Tor Band in the central square of any Belarusian city. The song "We Are Not Little People!", which came out in April, became one of the symbols of protest. You can hear it from wireless speakers, cell phone speakers and passing cars practically on any Sunday march. The clip on the song has got its honest million views on YouTube, other songs of the band - more modest, but still hundreds of thousands of views.

Dzima and Zhenia - two members of the band - had hardly thought about such a turn of events. The guys have been playing together for ten years already and represent the glaring history of Rahachou's rock music. Dzima is a photographer who has lived in Moscow for 12 years and returned to his hometown to help his mother. Zhenia is a sound engineer at the local House of Culture who, miraculously, still keeps his work record book within a state structure.

Their history is full of contradictions and amazing coincidences.

"When I left for Moscow, I had a sports suit and a guitar with me"

Dzima - songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Tor Band - went to Moscow under the pressure of circumstances. The guy studied in Mahiliou, on the eve of the Graduate Placement he decided that returning to Rahachou would have a bad impact on his career ambitions and liver, and eventually left for Moscow before one could say Jack Robinson.

- I had a sports suit and a guitar with me. I called my mother and said: "Hello, I am in Moscow," - Dzima says. - Mom scraped up $100 and sent it to me. I found a room, and that same evening its owners stole all the money and threw me out of the apartment. In short, Moscow is my city.

Nevertheless, the guy stayed there for 12 years. He worked as an advertising man, designer of toys and packages, and at the same time played rock with the Moscow guys.

At that time, Zhenia was working at the House of Culture and drinking hard.

- Everybody was drinking there, drinking eerily. I started working at the Culture Center back in school and eventually stayed there. A joke or not, but at the age of 20 I had already kicked drinking alcohol. Well, what other prospects are there?

Young specialists come here, work off their two years and leave. They have nothing to be interested in, and they see no prospects for development. Our department of youth affairs is headed by the people who are far from being young. Now I am 30 years old, and a month ago I was invited to a 20-year-old guy's birthday party. I did not understand what they were talking about and the music they were listening to. And how can 50-year old men and women work with them and make them interested in something? It is simply impossible.

The history of the Tor Band begins about ten years ago, when Dzima came to Rahachou together with his Moscow team.

- We were invited to perform at a local festival by a man from Rahachou. I am from here and suggested to the Moscow guys: "Let's give some free rock'n'roll in Rahachou". I came and met Zhenia - he was playing in the Sex band then. They were playing... crap. I saw that there was some emotional heat, but no rock, so I thought I should add it. In the end, I started playing with them.

Even the band members did not like the name Sex, but somehow the band existed for some time and even managed to go on a tour around Ukraine. And in a rather strange way: it was planned that Dzima's Moscow band would go on tour.

- I told my guys from Moscow: "Guys, stand down. Our band ceases to exist, and the Sex is going on tour". So we went to Ukraine for a week with concerts. At that time we had four songs, which we used to stretch out for 40 minutes: we did all sorts of contests that corresponded to the name of the band. It was some kind of crap. Then the crap was over: another director noticed us and said that with this name we would not get on any radio station at all.

The band was renamed "Oira!", the next day played a concert at the Kiev Green Theater with Liapis Trubetskoi, Louna, Lumen and FPG, a little later matured for full solo concerts and performances with Julia Kogan, who had just left "Leningrad". In general, it is difficult to imagine a more successful restart. But at some point, the director of the band had a conflict with one of its members.

- They started taking me to concerts in Russia without the rest of the Oira! At first, there were no questions: it means that this is how the director sees the group's development. And then we had a conversation.

There is no point in retelling all further conflicts and disputes that have arisen around "Oira! There were documents signed without looking at them, creative disagreements and all the other charms that any musician sooner or later faces. Everything led to the fact that for some time the band played without a name at all. And then, three years ago, the Tor Band appeared.

- On the posters of bike festivals, the organizers wrote "ex-Oira!" - Zhenia recalls. - And then we decided that we should somehow pack it all. There must have been something "manly" - something that could hit the head. Googled: isn't there a Tor group anywhere else? At least in the post-Soviet space. We see - no. God, what a name! Even a movie has been released.

"At first people were afraid to take part in the video, but then everything changed"

Already under the Tor Band sign the band is having the most successful period in their career - largely thanks to the song "We Are Not Little People!", which unexpectedly for Dzima and Zhenia became successful and a kind of a hymn. The song itself, although it has a specific author, is still based on folklore motifs.

- I brought the song in April - at that time there were no protests, no one was closed, everything was good and smooth, - Dzima said. - In fact, we couldn't plan this reaction, because the song wasn't originally planned as a protest one. People write to us: "Cool protest track!" But it is a patriotic track, not a protest one. It's a song about what people really think about themselves. Phrases about "little people" aroused indignation both in me and in a huge number of people. It hit the ego of the Belarusian people very hard.

In spring, I decided: I should listen to what people are talking about, write the main theses and rhyme them. At that time, there was the coronavirus and I heard such things: "What kind of a herd of sheep does he think we are?" And I write it down: "We are not a herd", "Not a bunch of simpletons" and so on.

In fact, our task is to pack the basic theses that people are talking about. We are people too, we are also hurt by insults. They hurt everyone. You can't treat your people like that. And this is not an offense, it is an adequate response to the situation where you start to be insulted and humiliated.

The song was released in June, and the musicians decided to make a clip on it: they offered people to record a video where they sing the chorus of the song. At first it was difficult: people were scared away by the rather brave lyrics of the song.

- I was sending people the chorus of the song, and in response they were writing to me: "You’re kidding!" I say: "Don't you agree?" And to me: "I am afraid". Then I started to put pieces of the chorus into Instagram for fun, and many people dared to go for it: if someone wasn't afraid, I wouldn't be either. It was very difficult to get the right amount of videos, but those guys who ended up in the clip are the most desperate and brave people at the time.

The work on the next video for the song "Live!" was much simpler: it was enough to go live in Instagram once and invite people. More than 70 men from all over the country came to take part in the shooting.

- When we saw the number of cars on the bank of the Dnepr, our eyes popped out, - Zhenia says. - There were rumors in the town: a gang of some kind has arrived there, now, probably, the drama will start. It's going to be some kind of mayhem! Everyone is wearing black T-shirts, without any symbols - the people did not understand at all of what was going on in the town. A lot of cars with license plates from different regions, they all go somewhere in a solid column - this, of course, confused the local people a lot.

The musicians of the Tor Band describe their current relations with the local authorities in a laconic way: "They are not there". In fact, this description is quite far from the truth. Firstly, because Zhenia still works as a sound engineer at the local Culture Center, which is subordinate to the ideology, culture and youth affairs department of the district executive committee.

- I thought that I would most likely have to leave. But I said straight away that I wouldn't write that an employee's request to terminate the employment, if you want - fire me. But I am the only sound engineer in the town: if I leave, there will be no events.

When I was called to work at a meeting after the elections, I said: "Excuse me, you can take disciplinary action". But it turned out that a man from the district was eventually found.

Secondly, there were some dialogues with local authorities, even before the elections.

- Before the song "We Are Not Little People!" we released two songs, after which we started receiving calls from the district executive committee, - Dzima explains. - We told them: 'Guys, this is not the worst thing that awaits you. Two or three more songs are ready".

Now even the idea of organizing a concert of the Tor Band sounds a bit utopian. In addition, Dzima and Zhenia received signals not only from the local authorities, although the musicians have no desire to talk about it. Suffice to mention: until a certain moment there was a third member in the band, now he is gone.

- Starting this summer we have stopped making plans further than the next day. And what is the point in planning? Today you are sitting here, and tomorrow - somewhere else. Everybody understands this very well. How can you plan something for the week ahead? There were no direct conversations with us. But we live in a small town, and we were unambiguously told: guys, get your asses ready. We have lost one member of the group. And for a reason.

They had a serious conversation with him, and he decided that he had something to lose. And any movement we make towards Minsk is also a certain risk. Everybody understands this. It is impossible to agree our concert with the city administration, and to hold it without agreement means an article.

On the other hand, we had no questions whether to continue playing. We had songs that we wanted to release: tracks "Live", "Who Else but You", there was tremendous support. We have found so many friends all over the country! In general, it seems to me that the Belarusians have learned to love themselves. Such love has never existed here before, and the feeling of patriotism is now going off the charts. We have learned our country. No one suspected that the system that had been building for 26 years would lead to such consolidation.